Wednesday, November 30, 2016

Fourth Week of November- Thanksgiving & Utah

The anticipation and excitement for our trip to Utah was getting pretty hard to contain. Sunday I got to teach Kate's Primary class. And it was so fun! Tim was working so Henry just enjoyed crawling around the room and trying to get into everything! Love how proud he is of himself! I always worry about how Sundays alone are going to go...but I am also pleasantly surprised how well we all do and was so thankful for happy kids. We last minute did drive down to go visit Tim since we were going to miss him later in the week and didn't have many opportunities to see him before we left.

Monday we spent packing and prepping for our trip! It was a rainy day and I had to snap this pic of Millie as we ran a quick errand.

Oh and not to mention how nice our weather has been!

I saw this (see above) on my instagram and just had to laugh out loud! So true!

Then Tuesday as I frantically finished our last minute packing I had to be sure I left a little Thanksgiving love for Tim! Pecan cheesecake on the left, cherry on the right! I felt a little worried/crazy as I was making pie just a few hours before we needed to leave and I still needed to pack the car but I knew how much it would mean to Tim and it just felt right taking a break from the hustle. And here's Millie with our Thankful Tree! Every morning during breakfast the kids and I would take the time to write down something we were thankful for! I love this little tradition and loved what the girls came up with (from kitties, Jesus, each other to popcorn, "Let It Go" and rainbows) and I loved the things they helped me come up with that Henry was thankful for!

Then Tuesday at 3:45pm after Kate got home from school we packed up and hit the road. Although the kids travel so well I was anxious to see how this solo drive to Utah was going to go! It went awesome! I was so proud of the kids and proud of myself. We only had one rough 30 minutes before we made it to Kingman, AZ where we would be stopping for dinner. Poor Henry was hungry and ready for bed but we plowed through, stopped for dinner and then got in our jammies so the kids could sleep and got back on the road. We made it to Mesquite, NV by 10pm and after having to drag in all my sleeping children into the dang casino to check in we got settled in and slept well. We then left Mesquite by about 8:30am after breakfast and play time at McDonalds and arrived in Orem at Tim's parents house by 1pm. I was relieved to have the drive behind me... but like I said everyone did so awesome...without hesitation I can say I'll do it again! Especially with breaking the drive up.

I love this picture...these girls were so good to entertain themselves as we had to stop in a parking lot so I could nurse Henry

We stopped to see Grandma and Grandpa B as well as all the Utah Bahr cousins! The girls were in heaven and loved jumping in the leaves and playing outside (even though it was a lot colder than we were used to)!

After playing for a couple hours we made one more drive (but only 40 minutes) up to my parents house! As we pulled our stuff from the car the wind started to blow, clouds rolled in and without 2 hours the snow started to fall and it quickly started to pile up! We were so lucky to not have to worry about any bad weather!

Thursday morning Kate started the day off right with a piece of apple pie!

The girls were especially excited about the snow. I hadn't really looked at the weather. I guess I did look but didn't think my parents would get so much snow. We didn't bring our snow pants so they didn't get to play very much. But these Arizona girls loved tromping around and Kate built the cutest little snowman!

Love these sweet sisters!

Then we anxiously awaited the arrival of cousins and the big feast! It felt SO good to be home for Thanksgiving! It had missed the last 3 Thanksgivings. Thanksgiving is definitely one of my favorite holidays! My mom knows just how to make it perfect! And although I love the food (and oh the pie) it is just such a special time to reflect on our many blessings and be surrounded by family! We had a lovely day, a lovely feast. All my brothers and their families were there. So it was all of us...except poor Tim! And oh how we missed him! Tim unfortunately had to work a 28 hour call shift beginning on Thanksgiving Day at 6am and wouldn't get off till noon the following day! He's been on a really busy rotation and that's why the kids and I decided to head to Utah! He had a nice enough day and even got turkey dinner in the cafeteria. But he said the pie made it a little special!

Disney Dance Wii

Playing games

My mom had the kids fill these paper out... one of my nieces asked Millie the questions and I helped Kate spell. Love these so much! Then Friday we went and saw Moana! Kate has been terrified of going to the movie theatre for awhile now. She hadn't been to a movie since summer 2014. But for some reason she decided when we went to Utah she wanted to go see Moana with Grandma and so we did. And we loved it! And the music is awesome. I can't wait to see it again! And the theatre we went to even had Polynesian dancers performing. Oh and the popcorn was awesome too!

I think Millie liked the popcorn :)

Then Saturday we headed downtown to City Creek to say hello to Santa Clause and check out the Candy Windows and see the Lights on Temple Square! It was a perfect night to go. It wasn't too cold and wasn't near as crowded as I was expecting. It was a lovely way to spend out last hours in Utah!

Waiting to see Santa...Millie seemed excited to see him but then last minute decided she didn't want to go by him

1 comment:

Thank you for coming home for Thanksgiving, Hay! You are very brave to make the drive from Phoenix to Salt Lake with your three little ones. It was so fun to have you here! We love and miss you, so nice you will be here soon for Christmas!